A Tip of the Hat to Buzzfeed

BuzzFeed, a social news and entertainment company, is revolutionizing online advertising and marketing with a social format and content-driven publishing technology. Its global audience is transfixed by the variety of posts on BuzzFeed.com, ranging from hard-hitting news stories, playful quizzes, artist and musician profiles, politics – oh, and plenty of cat videos. You name it and you can probably find an article about it on BuzzFeed.

BuzzFeed’s “social content marketing,” or “native adverstising,” could very well be the future of content marketing.

“We call it ‘social’ because it really is word-of-mouth marketing online,” BuzzFeed’s president, John Steinberg, said in a recent interview. “We go back and forth with the brands. We collaborate, but I think that’s the way advertising needs to be.”

The strategy that BuzzFeed employs is remarkably creative. When Prius was a sponsor of the site’s content, the car company was tied to a series of trivial but utterly amusing articles about hybrid animals. Get it?

This truly modern website is built on the social age that exists today. BuzzFeed allows readers to become contributors, able to create their own articles and put them up on the site, thereby allowing keen audience members to become valuable teammates. Images, GIFs, videos, and well-written content from around the world have catapulted BuzzFeed into the role as an online staple for brands, agencies, and the public at large. Cleary, BuzzFeed’s social content marketing is something to a trend that undoubtedly will have an effect on future sites.